


Round the Oak Tree

by Ttttrickster (iscatterthemintimeandspace)



Series: Writer's Club Prompts [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Fluff, Gabriel went to prison, Happy Ending, Human AU, M/M, Song fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 21:43:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11495337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iscatterthemintimeandspace/pseuds/Ttttrickster
Summary: Gabriel was coming home, he’d done his time. But he had to know what was and wasn’t his.





	Round the Oak Tree

Gabriel thought he would never reach this moment. 

From the moment he was arrested, dragged from his bed and thrown in prison, his life had been hell. Monotonous days, cold nights, punctuated with hours and hours of a constant ache for home. He missed everything the outside world had to offer; the food, the freedom, but most of all, he missed his boyfriend, Sam. 

He’d always known there was a chance he would end up in prison for what he’d done, but he never regretted doing it. He had done it to protect Sam, and for that he would never be sorry. 

But today was D-day, the day he got out, and he was more than ready to put his time in prison behind him. The only thing he cared about was whether or not Sam still wanted to be with him. 

In the three years he’d be in, Sam had never come to visit him. Gabriel didn’t blame him, it was more than a day's trip from where they lived to where he was locked up. Prison phone calls were expensive and Gabriel knew Sam’s parents didn’t approve of him talking to Gabriel. Sam had sent him letters and care packages, and Gabriel was surprised he had kept it up this long. 

It would be selfish for Gabriel to expect Sam to wait for him. 

He climbed on the bus with the other soon-to-be free men, clutching his ticket as if it were the key to Heaven's pearly gates. He picked out a seat by the window, so he could see the road before them clearly. If Sam had received his letter, telling him of his impending release, he’d know what to do if he still wanted Gabriel. If he didn’t, Gabriel had no choice but to stay on the bus and forget about what they had together

Gabriel leaned back, sighing at the comfort of the seat, laughing to himself at how far he’d fallen. His bed at home had a four inch thick pillow top, with satin sheets, and here he was enjoying the worn, questionable seat of a bus. 

The driver got on the bus and sitting down heavily in his seat. He offered Gabriel a welcoming smile as he put the key in the ignition. He closed the door and pulled the bus out of the parking lot. The rest of the men sat near the front of the bus, as anxious as Gabriel was for the first sight of home. 

They were about a half hour out when the man next to him began to talk. Gabriel was familiar with him from prison, although they hadn’t run with the same circles. His name was Benny, a burly tattooed man with a thick southern accent and a reputation for being tough but fair. 

“You happy to be going home?” he drawled, clasping his hands behind his head. 

Gabriel chuckled. “That would be the understatement of the year,” he told him, leaning forward. “Is there anyone who wouldn't be?” 

Benny joined in his laughter, but the bus driver was the one who answered his question.

“You’d be surprised.” he put in, looking at Benny and Gabriel in his rear view mirror. “Sometimes there’s nothing left, their family is gone, or disowned them. Sometimes prison is easier than having to pick up the pieces.” 

Gabriel looked at the man, reading the name on his name tag. It said Garth, with a smilie face. “Not me. I’d take freedom, alone or not.” 

“You got anyone waitin’ for you,” Benny asked him. “At home?”

Gabriel shrugged. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, only to have them dashed when he got there. “Maybe?”

“Maybe?” Benny responded, arching an eyebrow at him. “Either you got someone waitin’ or you don’t. I know my Andrea is waitin’ for me. 

“I don’t know yet.” Gabriel said, looking down. “It’s been a long time.” 

“Well, who did you have when you left?” Benny wanted to know. 

“My boyfriend Sam,” Gabriel replied. He’d kept the fact that he was pansexual close to his chest in prison, he didn’t need to go getting mixed up in that, but now that he was a free man, it didn’t matter. “Couldn’t ask for someone better. He’s wonderful, my Sammy. Kind, handsome, smart as a whip. He graduated from Stanford while I was away, wanted to be a lawyer. Wanna see?” 

Benny nodded, and Gabriel slid the battered picture of Sam out of his pocket. It was the only thing he’d had when they booked him, and the only thing he carried out of that miserable place. It was Sam’s high school graduation picture, and he was wearing a suit, with his hair combed back. Benny look it for a moment, nodding before handing it back to Gabriel. 

“He’s a looker,” Benny commented, and Gabriel smiled. 

“I don’t expect him to wait for me,” Gabriel continued, stowing the picture back into his pocket. “He said he would, but I wouldn’t blame him. I didn’t have enough time to get a response, prison calls are expensive so I wrote him a letter. I’ll know before I get off the bus.”

Both Benny and Garth gave him a confused look. “How?” 

“It’s stupid but I’ll know.” Gabriel didn’t know why he was telling them any of this, but it felt good to share his anxiety with other people. “ When we were kids, there was this tall oak tree in town, you can see it from the road, we used to climb it all the time and I told him that if he still wanted me, all he had to do was tie a yellow ribbon around that tree. If it’s there, I’ll know he still loves me.” 

“And if there isn’t?” came another voice from behind him. He hadn’t noticed until now that the rest of the men seemed to be hanging on his every word. 

“Then I’ll stay on the bus see where it takes me,” Gabriel replied. “It’s my fault, I can’t blame him. He’s got a bright future, who wants to be tied to an ex-con?” Many of the men around him were nodding. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to bear it if I don’t see that ribbon. If I don’t have him, I may as well still be in prison.”

The men around him grew quiet, all lost in their own situation. Gabriel knew that many of them were in similar positions as he was, not knowing what the future held for them. 

It remained silent until they were coming close to Gabriel’s stop. He turned to Garth and the others. “Will you do me a favor?”

“Sure,” Garth replied, regarding him from the mirror again. 

“When we round the hill,” Gabriel asked. “Will you look for me?” 

Garth smiled. “Of course I will.” 

The bus made it’s way up and around, and Gabriel could feel the tension in the air. It was as if the whole bus was holding their breaths with him. Finally, he put his face down in his hands, unable to look. He could feel the bus turn, and every second felt like an eternity as he waited for the response. 

Suddenly, a loud whoop broke the silence, followed by every man on the bus hooting and hollering as loudly as they could. 

Gabriel was up out of his seat like a shot, his eyes watering when he took in the sight before him. He couldn’t believe it. 

The old oak tree was completely covered in yellow ribbons, until not a single piece of bark was seen through it. There were ribbons in the branches, around the trunk, tied and fluttering in the breeze. It took him a minute to process the best part. 

Sam was there too, sitting under the tree, wearing a yellow ribbon tied around his chest. By now, he had spotted the bus and he got up, his grin so wide that Gabriel could see it all the way from the bus. 

He didn’t even feel the flurry of congratulatory pats on his back, or hear the loud whistles and shouts as the bus grew closer and closer to home. All he could think about was his freedom. 

With Sam waiting for him, he was finally free.


End file.
